(a) 'Brahma satyam jaganmithyā, jivo Brahmaiva nāparaḥ'. In the light of this statement explain the ontological status of Īśvara…

(a) Advaita: Īśvara, jīva and sākṣī

The statement (attributed to Śaṅkara’s Brahmajñānāvalīmālā) sums up Advaita: Brahman alone is real, the world is mithyā, and the jīva is nothing but Brahman.

• Brahma satyam: Brahman is pure existence, consciousness and bliss (sat-cit-ānanda), without attributes or second. It alone is pāramārthika (ultimately real), never sublated.
• Jagan mithyā: the world is neither real (it is sublated by knowledge of Brahman) nor unreal like a hare’s horn (it is experienced and causally efficient). It is anirvacanīya, a superimposition (adhyāsa) of name and form on Brahman through māyā, like the snake on the rope. Three levels of reality: prātibhāsika (illusory), vyāvahārika (empirical) and pāramārthika (absolute).
• Jīvo brahmaiva nāparaḥ: the individual self is Brahman itself, as “tat tvam asi” teaches.

Īśvara:

• Brahman associated with māyā (māyopahita), saguṇa Brahman: omniscient, omnipotent creator, sustainer and dissolver, and dispenser of karma.
• Ontological status: real at the vyāvahārika level, the highest reality within the world of appearance, but not ultimately distinct from Brahman. When māyā is sublated, Īśvara as Lord ceases, but not as Brahman.

Jīva:

• Consciousness associated with avidyā and the individual mind-body (antaḥkaraṇa). It is knower, doer and enjoyer, bound by karma.
• Two models: pratibimba-vāda (the jīva is Brahman reflected in avidyā, Vivaraṇa school) and avaccheda-vāda (the jīva is Brahman limited by upādhis, like space in a pot, Bhāmatī school).
• Ontological status: as an individual it is vyāvahārika. Its essence is Brahman, and on knowledge its separateness dissolves (mokṣa).

Sākṣī:

• The witness consciousness that illumines the mind and its states, including ignorance, while itself unaffected (Pañcadaśī distinguishes jīva-sākṣī and Īśvara-sākṣī).
• It is self-luminous (svaprakāśa) and the ground of the certainty “I exist”. It is Brahman as present in the jīva, with the mind as a mere adjunct.
• Ontological status: the sākṣī is closest to the ultimate, the point where the “thou” of “tat tvam asi” is found to be identical with “that”.

Brahman is therefore pāramārthika, Īśvara and jīva are vyāvahārika forms of Brahman through māyā and avidyā, and the sākṣī is Brahman itself as witness within the individual.

(b) Integral yoga and the triple transformation (Sri Aurobindo)

Integral (pūrṇa) yoga aims not at escape from the world but at transformation of the whole nature, body, life and mind, so that a divine life can be lived on earth (The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga). It integrates the yogas of works, knowledge, devotion and self-perfection. Its method is aspiration from below, rejection of the movements of the lower nature, and surrender to the Divine, which answers by a descent of higher force.

Triple transformation:

1. Psychic transformation: the psychic being, the evolving soul-spark behind the heart, comes forward and replaces the ego as guide of mind, life and body. It brings sincerity, love and right discernment.
2. Spiritual transformation: the consciousness opens upward to the higher planes, higher mind, illumined mind, intuition and overmind, and their peace, light and force descend into the being. The sense of a separate ego gives way to a cosmic, universal consciousness.
3. Supramental transformation: the Supermind or truth-consciousness descends and transforms even the body and the subconscient, creating a gnostic being. This completes the ascent and integration.

Evaluation:

• Strengths: it reconciles spirit and matter, gives evolution a spiritual direction, and values life and society, unlike ascetic world-negation.
• Problems: the supramental descent is a claim that cannot be verified by ordinary means, and Aurobindo himself regarded it as a future possibility. The process depends on grace and is hard to generalise. Critics see a speculative teleology in assuming that consciousness must evolve towards the Supermind.

(c) Mokṣa in Madhva and Rāmānuja

Common ground: both reject Advaita’s identity of jīva and Brahman, accept a personal God (Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa), a real world, many real souls, and liberation through bhakti and divine grace, ending in eternal life in Vaikuṇṭha.

Rāmānuja (Viśiṣṭādvaita):

• The jīva is a mode (prakāra) and body (śarīra) of Brahman, inseparable from it (apṛthak-siddhi), and its śeṣa, existing for Brahman.
• Means: bhakti, upheld by karma and jñāna, or prapatti (total surrender) to Nārāyaṇa, with grace.
• Nature of mokṣa: the soul attains likeness (sāmya, sādharmya) to Brahman in knowledge and bliss, but not the powers of creation and control. Bliss is equal for all liberated souls and expressed in eternal service (kaiṅkarya).

Madhva (Dvaita):

• Fivefold difference (pañca-bheda) is real and eternal: God and soul, God and matter, soul and soul, soul and matter, matter and matter. The soul is a reflection (pratibimba) of God, wholly dependent (paratantra).
• Souls are classified by nature (svarūpa-traividhya): those fit for liberation (mukti-yogya), those bound eternally in transmigration (nitya-saṃsārin), and those destined for darkness (tamo-yogya).
• Means: bhakti grounded in knowledge of Viṣṇu’s supremacy, and above all Viṣṇu’s grace (prasāda).
• Nature of mokṣa: the soul realises its own inherent bliss, which differs in degree among liberated souls (ānanda-tāratamya). Forms include sālokya, sāmīpya, sārūpya and sāyujya, but difference from God remains.

Key differences: unity-in-difference and equal bliss (Rāmānuja) against eternal difference and graded bliss (Madhva), and Madhva’s predestined classes of souls, which Rāmānuja does not accept.